Designed for graphics professionals, photographers, and anyone who requires accurate color and grayscale performance, the NEC PA271W is a high-end desktop monitor that uses the latest panel and processing technologies to deliver the goods. Featuring a 14-bit LUT (lookup table), wide gamut P-IPS (professional in-plane switching) technology, a high res (2,560-by- 1,440) panel, and a wealth of settings, this 27-inch monitor doesn't come cheap, and it's not nearly as svelte as the latest crop of LED backlit monitors. However, if performance is a priority, the PA271W should be on your short list of professional grade monitors.

Design and Features
The PA271W uses CCFL (cold cathode florescent lamp) backlighting rather than the more popular LED backlighting, which accounts for it bulky frame. The matte black cabinet is 3.3 inches thick and weighs 21.2 pounds without its stand. The stand weighs 8.8 pounds and offers every adjustment you'll ever need, including height, swivel, tilt, and pivot. As with the NEC MultiSync PA301W , this model supports auto-rotation, which changes the image orientation when the panel is pivoted. It also has VESA compliant mounting holes if you want to hang it on a wall.

The screen is framed by thin black bezels. The bottom and right side bezels have buttons that are used to navigate the extensive settings menus. Pressing any button activates an on-screen labeling system that makes it easy to tweak settings without having to remember what each button does. If you pivot the panel for portrait mode viewing the on-screen labels will rotate as well.

Around back are two dual-link DVI ports, a DisplayPort input, two upstream USB ports, and two downstream USB ports. An HDMI port would be welcome here. The two upstream USB ports allow you to use the monitor's DisplaySync Pro feature (a virtual KVM switch) to control two different computers with a single keyboard and mouse. A single downstream USB port is mounted on the right side of the cabinet.

As with the NEC PA301W and NEC MultiSync PA241W models, the PA271W offers a boatload of image adjustments. In addition to brightness, contrast, Eco mode, and color temperature controls there are nine picture presets (sRGB, Adobe RGB, eciRGB, DCI, REC-Bt709, High Bright, Full, DICOM, Programmable), and each preset has its own adjustment menu that allows you to change things like, white balance, color gamut, gamma, black level, and uniformity. There's also a 6-axis adjust option that lets you adjust the hue, saturation, and brightness levels of each individual color. Other advanced settings include ambient light compensation, Metamerism (helps match white point when using the monitor side by side with a standard gamut display), and Color Vision EMU (simulates human vision deficiencies and is used to evaluate how people with vision deficiencies perceive colors).

The Tile Matrix feature lets you display one image across multiple monitors (up to 25) but you'll need a distribution amplifier (not included) to send the video signal to each monitor. There are several PIP (picture in picture) modes available with various size and position settings. You can even have the PIP image automatically rotate when the panel is pivoted. As with many MultiSync models, the PA271W has a built-in meter that tracks the monitor's carbon footprint and energy usage.

Performance
The PA271W aced the DisplayMate 64-Step Grayscale test, displaying every shade of gray cleanly from dark to light with no noticeable clipping or compression. Color accuracy was also quite good but not perfect; as shown on the CIE chart below, reds, greens, and blues were all very close to their ideal CIE coordinates but not spot-on (the closer each dot is to its corresponding box, the more accurate the color). That said, colors appeared evenly saturated and uniform on the Color Scales and Full Screen Color tests and there was no evidence of tinting in the grayscale.

The IPS panel delivered outstanding viewing angle performance. Color quality was unaffected when viewed from a side or bottom angle and the picture remained bright. Small text on the Scaled Fonts test (5.3 points) was crisp and easy to read.

The panel's 7-millisecond (black-to-white) pixel response did an adequate job of handling fast motion video. But this monitor isn't the best choice for gamers as it lacks speakers and HDMI inputs. Still, video looked smooth, and image clarity was outstanding.

The PA271W used 82 watts of power in regular mode, 77 watts in ECO mode 1, and 50 watts in ECO mode 2. The latter was a bit too dark for typical office lighting but ECO 1 looked fine. These numbers can't compete with monitors that use LED backlighting, such as the HP Pavilion 27xi (22 watts) and the Dell UltraSharp U2713HM (32 watts).

Conclusion
With a list price of over $1,100 the NEC MultiSync PA271W isn't cheap, but as is usually the case, premium quality commands premium dollars. Its 27-inch P-IPS panel offers impressive performance and a generous feature set, and its extensive settings menu allows you to fine tune the panel to meet your specific imaging needs. These credentials make the PA271W an easy selection as our newest Editors' Choice for big-screen monitors. Granted, you can save close to $300 with the Dell UltraSharp 2713HM and get more input choices, but you won't get the outstanding grayscale performance that the PA271W offers, nor will you get such a plethora of picture settings, an internal KVM switch, and a screen that automatically rotates the image when you pivot the panel.

As a Contributing Editor for PC Magazine, John Delaney has been testing and reviewing monitors, HDTVs, PCs, servers, and other assorted hardware and peripherals for more than 14 years. A 13-year veteran of PC Magazine's...

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